{"id":3518,"date":"2026-10-30T09:03:45","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T04:03:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=3518"},"modified":"2026-10-30T09:03:45","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T04:03:45","slug":"patrick-stewart-shakespearean-actor-turned-star-trek-and-x-men-star-dies-at-86","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=3518","title":{"rendered":"Patrick Stewart, Shakespearean actor turned ‘Star Trek’ and ‘X-Men’ star, dies at 86"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Patrick Stewart, who rose from poverty in England to become an accomplished Shakespearean stage actor and then achieved global stardom as the erudite Captain Jean-Luc Picard in TV\u2019s \u201cStar Trek: The Next Generation\u201d and the telepathic Professor Charles Xavier \u200bin the \u201cX-Men\u201d movies, has died at the age of 86.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stewart, knighted in 2010 by Queen Elizabeth II for his contributions to drama, died at his home in Los Angeles, according to a statement on \u200chis X account.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe announce with great sorrow the passing of Sir Patrick Stewart yesterday at his home in Los Angeles, in the loving care of his beloved wife Sunny, following a brief and poignant journey with Alzheimer\u2019s Disease and Lewy Body Dementia,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

Stewart became an actor at age 18 and gained acclaim on the stage as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company beginning in the 1960s.<\/p>\n

But it was not until after he was hired at age 47 for \u201cStar Trek: The Next Generation\u201d \u2014 a TV series that ran from 1987 to 1994 as a sequel to \u200bthe original 1960s \u201cStar Trek\u201d \u2014 that he gained mainstream fame, acting into his 80s.<\/p>\n

\u201cMake it so,\u201d his character Picard often said, instructing a subordinate to carry out a command, or sometimes deploying the similar catchphrase, \u201cEngage.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a role \u200bhe had debated even taking after his longtime friend and fellow Shakespearean Ian McKellen advised him to spurn \u201cStar Trek\u201d and remain in theatre.<\/p>\n

Stewart did take the role and became both \u2060a fan favourite and an indispensable part of a lucrative sci-fi franchise, playing Picard not only in 176 episodes over seven seasons of that series but also in several \u201cStar Trek\u201d films and in the later streaming series \u201cStar Trek: Picard\u201d that began \u200bairing in 2020 when he was 79.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the seven seasons of TNG (\u201cThe Next Generation\u201d) went by, the distinction between Jean-Luc Picard and Patrick Stewart became thinner and thinner, until I couldn\u2019t know where he left off and I \u200bbegan. So much of what I believed and felt went into that show,\u201d Stewart told the Guardian newspaper in 2022.<\/p>\n

Stewart also initially baulked at being cast as the wheelchair-using mutant Professor X in the \u201cX-Men\u201d movies, based on the popular Marvel comic book character.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018Look, I know this isn\u2019t science fiction, but it\u2019s fantasy, and I\u2019ve done that.\u2019 But they persuaded me that it wouldn\u2019t be like \u2018Star Trek,\u2019 so I did it. And yet again I was proved wrong,\u201d Stewart told the Guardian.<\/p>\n

He became a critical part of another big-money franchise, starting with the first entry \u201cX-Men\u201d in \u200b2000 and followed by several more, including the 2002 Marvel movie \u201cDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.\u201d He appeared alongside McKellen, who played the villain Magneto, in some of the \u201cX-Men\u201d films.<\/p>\n

Stewart, playing Charles Xavier, took part in the filming of the \u200bhighly anticipated \u201cAvengers: Doomsday\u201d and will appear in the Marvel film that is due to hit theatres in December.<\/p>\n

Marvel Studios paid tribute to Stewart on Thursday in a statement, calling him \u201ca singular talent, a generous collaborator and a true gentleman.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a>Acting was safe space<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Stewart was born on \u200cJuly 13, 1940, \u2060in the English town of Mirfield in Yorkshire. He was raised in poverty, with a father who he said returned from World War Two an alcoholic who suffered from post-traumatic stress syndrome and physically abused Stewart\u2019s mother.<\/p>\n

Stewart recalled putting his body between his father and mother to try to protect her.<\/p>\n

As a child, Stewart said, acting became a \u201csafe space\u201d after a schoolteacher introduced him to Shakespeare \u2014 specifically \u201cThe Merchant of Venice\u201d \u2014 during a class when he was 12.<\/p>\n

He started losing his hair at age 17 and was bald by 19. He was embarrassed at the time, but eventually embraced it.<\/p>\n

\u201cStar Trek,\u201d created by Gene Roddenberry, presented a hopeful vision of the future, with humankind venturing into the cosmos in spaceships exceeding the speed of light and \u200bencountering alien races.<\/p>\n

The enduring popularity of the original series and \u200bthe success of spinoff films prompted Roddenberry to create \u201cThe \u2060Next Generation\u201d sequel series.<\/p>\n

The Picard character was the opposite of the swashbuckling and sometimes unintentionally buffoonish Captain James T. Kirk, played by William Shatner, of the original series \u2014 envisioned as more cerebral and disciplined, though sometimes coming across as stuffy, humourless, or self-important.<\/p>\n

Stewart recalled being a little too serious with his castmates early on.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tell the story of calling a meeting \u200bof my principal fellow cast members and telling them that I thought we were not disciplined enough, that we should not be fooling about on the set as much \u200bas we were but taking everything \u2060seriously,\u201d Stewart told the New Yorker in 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd one of the cast members said, \u2018Oh, come on, Patrick, we\u2019ve got to have some fun.\u2019 And I thumped the chair and said, \u2018We are not here to have fun\u2019 \u2014 which they have never let me forget. They taught me so much about loosening up and being freer,\u201d Stewart added.<\/p>\n

Stewart also felt the series improved as it went along, faulting his own portrayal of Picard in the first two seasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cI found it lacking intimacy. It was very authoritative, but there were few other \u2060qualities in him,\u201d \u200bStewart said, adding that his work got better in subsequent seasons.<\/p>\n

In fact, the finest work for the entire cast may have been the two-part, time-bending \u200bseries finale.<\/p>\n

He became Sir Patrick Stewart when he was knighted by the Queen at Buckingham Palace in 2010.<\/p>\n

He told reporters that his heroes were British actors Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud and Alec Guinness, who also had been knighted, adding that being \u201cin that company is the grandest thing that has professionally happened \u200bto me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stewart was married three times and had two children. His third marriage, in 2013, was to American musician Sunny Ozell.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Patrick Stewart, who rose from poverty in England to become an accomplished Shakespearean stage actor and then achieved global stardom as the erudite Captain Jean-Luc Picard in TV\u2019s \u201cStar Trek: The Next Generation\u201d and the telepathic Professor Charles Xavier \u200bin the \u201cX-Men\u201d movies, has died at the age of 86. Stewart, knighted in 2010 by Queen Elizabeth II for his contributions to drama, died at his home in Los Angeles, according to a statement on \u200chis X account. \u201cWe announce with great sorrow the passing of Sir Patrick Stewart yesterday…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3518\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}